Some you win, some you lose. Wheeling and dealing in the transfer market can be as perilous a business as sticking the life savings on some cuddy racing in the 3.15 at Towcester after getting a hot tip down the local.
Mark Warburton, the Rangers manager, bases his recruitment on a bit more than hearsay in the pub, of course. Then again, a few venerable barflies probably could have told him that Joey Barton was an accident waiting to happen. “If we all had hindsight, we’d all be sitting here with our Porsches outside,” said Warburton.
During Rangers’s rise back into the top flight last season, the Englishman received plenty of plaudits for the players he brought in to bolster the assault on the Championship title. In the fickle world of football, though, pats on the back can quickly turn into pelters.
Read more: McCoist: Dembele's form for Celtic does not show Garner in a great light
The prolonged Barton palaver has cast a sizeable shadow over Ibrox while the £1.8 million lavished on Joe Garner has still left eye brows raised. Meanwhile, the physical misfortunes visited upon other signings like Jordan Rossiter, Matt Crooks and Niko Kranjcar have been well beyond the control of the manager. It’s a demanding, unforgiving scene that a boss of Rangers operates in and in these times of remorseless scrutiny and rapid-fire reaction, Warburton has mounted a robust defence of his policy.
“If you’ve signed 22 players and one or two have gone wrong, I’ll take that average all day long,” he said. “Any gaffer in the world would take that. I’m seeing some criticism of this. You make a mistake and you hope you learn from it. Over the last 18 months, when 22 players have come in, I don’t think there are a lot of failures in that number. It’s to too early for Crooks, it’s too early for Joe Garner, it’s too early for Joe Dodoo. They have talent and we have no doubt about them at all. To sign a player, you don’t just turn up, watch a game and go ‘he’ll do for me’. It doesn’t work that way.
Read more: McCoist: Dembele's form for Celtic does not show Garner in a great light
“I have to be careful what I say because I get accused of having a prickly demeanour but the fact of the matter is that you can’t get 10 out of 10 right. Maybe last year was too good. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. Wes Foderingham went well, James Tavernier went well, Rob Kiernan went well, Andy Halliday went well, Martyn Waghorn went well. The loans, Dom Ball and Gideon (Zelalem), went well. Maybe we’re a victim of last year being really good. Likewise with the injuries. Maybe we were very lucky last year that these boys could play right through the season, every minute of every game.”
There’s never a dull moment for Warburton and he also acted swiftly to play down circulating rumours that there had been some bust-up between himself and the aforementioned Waghorn. It seems the only angry exchange Waghorn has been involved in has been with potty-mouthed school kids on the way back from the chippy.
“I read last week that apparently I’ve had a fall-out with Waghorn and he’s desperate to leave,” added Warburton of a player who still has a year left on his contract. “Waggy knocked on my door and went ‘have we had a fallout gaffer?’ I went ‘not that I’m aware of Waggy’. And that was it. So there is no problem with Waggy. Where these stories come from I don’t know. But he’s frustrated. Every player wants to play. When his chance comes, he’ll be ready.”
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